1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to heating and cooling devices and, more particularly, to apparatus suitable for cooling and heating adjacent rooms in such structures as hotels, motels, hospitals, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many buildings such as apartments, hotels, motels, hospitals, office buildings, and so forth, it is desirable to provide separate heating and cooling systems for individual rooms. A variety of units presently are commercially available that can be installed in each room, usually on an exterior wall, to provide cooling only, cooling plus heating with electric heat, or cooling plus heating with a heat pump. Typical commercially available heating/cooling units are marketed by the General Electric Company, Louisville, Ky. 40225, under the trademark ZONELINE.
Although commercially available heater/cooler units such as the ZONELINE unit function adequately, a problem not addressed by these units is the expense associated with providing heating and cooling capabilities for individual rooms. Current practice with heater/cooler units is to install one unit in each room having an exterior wall. By definition, such an arrangement requires that various components of these units such as compressors and condensers be provided for each room. Desirably, a heater/cooler unit would provide only such components in each room as are needed to carry out the heating or cooling requirements for that room, with the remainder of the components being shared among rooms as much as possible.
Various techniques are known for heating or cooling different zones by means of heating or cooling apparatus located at a remote location. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,124,998; 4,368,621; 4,530,395; and 4,549,601. These prior art techniques have certain drawbacks such as undue expense, complexity, and difficulty of operation that limit their effectiveness in heating or cooling individual rooms in buildings such as hotels, motels, and the like.